What is your typical warmup for a session or a race?

I know this is a very newbie question, and there is ample info in swim books/sites about this, but I'd love to hear from REAL SWIMMERS like you, thank you very much. What works for you? Lately I've been doing a series of 200m to 25m swims, usually totalling 800m, as a warmup. Example: 2x200m + 2x100m + 2x50m + 4x25m, starting very easy, ending at "fast" pace. In the future I hope to incorporate drills into the warmup, but I don't have a clue yet. :) I use practice to determine what kinds of warm-ups make me feel best (READ: ready to race). I then incorporate those warm-ups into my meet warm-up. At a meet that goes several days, I can definitely say that my opening easy stretch out swim of 400-500 yards begins to grow on each new day of the meet, so at a 3-4 day meet I am usually doing like 7-800 yards easy swimming before I do some fine tuning stuff (a mix of kicking, drilling, variable sprint, and then some pace if the upcoming race calls for it). However I also come from a high mileage background so my meet warm-ups would probably come across as "over swimming" to some.

Skuj, There are several reasons for warm-up. Getting the body ready to race: As the others have replied, it is an individual preference although there are several "realms" to go through. The first is the "easy" swimming/kicking/pulling to get your muscles activated - 500 works pretty good. Then a harder effort set (300-400 yrds) where you are are stressing the entire body system with 80-90% effort. Next is 300 harder set where you are pushing at 90-95% effort. Some easy swimming followed by pace work and/or starts followed by a warm-down to flush out bi-products. Getting to know the pool: This is the part of warm-up that rarely gets mentioned and is as important as your body getting ready. Use your warm-up to get to know the walls (slippery or grippy), the targets on the bottom and ends because not all pools are the same and a missed turns is the pitts, checking out the ceiling and flags if you are doing back or IM, if you are outdoors the sun can play a role as well. And, not all lanes are the same, so try to swim a bit in the lanes you will race in (if the meet is pre-seeded). Equipment functionality: Making sure your goggles, cap, swim, etc. are all good. Warm-up with the same equipment you will race with. Do several starts appropriate to the strokes you will do - to make sure the cap and goggles will stay on. Good Luck!

Getting to know the pool: This is the part of warm-up that rarely gets mentioned and is as important as your body getting ready. Use your warm-up to get to know the walls (slippery or grippy), the targets on the bottom and ends because not all pools are the same and a missed turns is the pitts, checking out the ceiling and flags if you are doing back or IM, if you are outdoors the sun can play a role as well. And, not all lanes are the same, so try to swim a bit in the lanes you will race in (if the meet is pre-seeded). this x1000 I try to choose the lane I am swimming in the most, or the lane I am swimming my best event in. I do this even at pools I have been swimming at for years (or been practicing in for years). WOW! I must be the really lazy one! For meets 3-400 free and 100 of all 4 strokes . I wouldn't say that. Different strokes for different folks. If someone posted that they just jump in and do a 50 freestyle, 25 smooth 25 fast and that's it, but it works for them and they swim the speed/times/way they want to swim, then who's to say they are wrong. The key thing is whatever works for YOU. That's why I added the caveat about my own warm-up. It works great for me, but maybe not for someone else, especially a drop dead sprinter. It's also why I use variations of warm-ups I use in practice. That's where I figure out what works, so it works there, I know it should work for me at a meet.

I was doing a bit longer warmup with some aerobic until my last meet when I realized I am a sprinter now and probably don't need aerobic. So I basically did prior to every session: 200 fr 200 IM k 8x50 k/dr dr/sw :50 4x25 variable speed :30 50 EZ 2 starts 100 EZ Then before every race I'd do 200 fr/bk x50, then 100-150 with sprint drills (heads-up free, back with dolphin kick, UDK work, *** progressions, etc depending on the race).

In-season, I go 1500, which is the warmup I like to do anyday I'm training solo: 1 x 400: IM, kick-drill 4 x 100: free descend to target 400/500 race pace, interval set about 20 seconds above that pace If the pool is too crowded for 100s, I'll go 8 x 50s, descending in 4s 4 x 100 or 8 x 50: IM kick 12 x 25 or 6 x 50 If 25s, then I go odds easy, evens build to fast, targeting the strokes I'm going to race If 50s, I'll got #1 and #6 easy. #2 to #5 build to fast stroke At a taper meet, I will go 1,000 as 1 x 400: IM, kick-drill 6 x 50: free, descend in 3s 8 x 25: odds easy, evens build to fast stroke 1 x 50: BLAST FAST kick 1 x 50: cruise Of course, this is ideal. I have pretty much been able to do this at almost all local/regional meets as there was enough space. At Nationals, you just do what you can, but even at Indy, I was able to do the above by strategically timing when/where I got into warmup

Our "default" warm-up at practice is: 200 swim 200 kick 200 pull 8x50 drill/swim I'm a slow warmer upper, and will start out at an easy 1:50-2:00 100 pace until I get loose and get my HR and breathing going. I'll work up to doing the 50's on 1:00 interval. Our coach will do some creative warm ups occasionally to keep it from getting too boring or mundane. At meets I try to do a longer warm up an hour before my first race, cycling through some long swims, kicking/drills, starts & turns at race speed and then some 25 builds. Maybe 800-1000yds. I'll wrap up to stay warm and then hop back in about 15 minutes before, mostly to get my HR up and to get a "feel" for the water again. After a race I'll warm down for an easy 200-400 yds.

WOW! I must be the really lazy one! For meets 3-400 free and 100 of all 4 strokes .

I do the same warm up that I did in HS/college. 500 FR- usually pretty pokey, some drill or just moving around. 400 IM SKSD and then either 4x50s build or 8x25's build, maybe some fast 12.5's to practice breakouts and underwater work and 2-3 starts.

I appreciate these responses, thanks. I am devouring all. There is so much to learn!!

A few years back I arrived at a meet very late and missed the w/u completely. Concluded after that it's not a good idea to race without w/u. Yikes. For a lot of OW swims, with or without a wetsuit, I try to get in ahead and swim at least a few hundred yards to loosen up. But that's not always possible in OW events and one can just start the event out at a slower pace and build, if you can't get in the water ahead of the race. I've tried using fins for 4- 6 fast 50s in a meet w/u, to get a sense of swimming fast and liked it. But I've rarely, if ever, seen anyone else with fins on in a meet w/u. Not sure why. I never thought about incorporating kick drill (pwb, post above) or pull (usher, post above) in a meet w/u, but it seems like an interesting idea worth trying. My usual meet w/u is 300 to 400 ez sw to stretch and then some 50s desc followed by a few 25s from the middle of the pool w/turns and breakouts and finally a few starts. Enough to fee like the meet pool isn't strange a place anymore I'm an old guy and don't want to waste too many good swims in the w/u (same with practice swings in golf) :cane: My meet w/u is not the same as our typical master team w/u, which varies from about 1,200 to 1,400 yards, usually not straight. Typically 500 to 600 straight followed by some 50s, 100s, or 200+s, with drill and stroke mixed in. Sometimes 800 or 1200 straight with every 4th or 8th lap stroke (helps in counting).